The present invention pertains to a visual alignment aid device for aiding a driver of a towing vehicle when connecting a trailer. In particular, the visual aid device helps in aligning the ball on a hitch of a towing vehicle relative to the socket on the tongue of the trailer to be towed by using an adjustable convex mirror on the alignment device which is removably attached to the towing vehicle. The aid device can easily be folded into a compact configuration for convenient storage.
Various devices have been designed and constructed to visually facilitate connecting a towing vehicle to a trailer to be towed. Most of the devices involve a mirror and therefore are also visual aid devices permitting the driver of the towing vehicle a direct visual observation of the alignment of the ball on the hitch of the towing vehicle relative to the socket on the tongue of the trailer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,182 discloses such a device. It consists of three parts which are hingedly connected to each other at their respective edges and support a convex mirror attached to the third part in a position which is normal to the line of the vision of a person attempting to align the towing vehicle and the trailer. There are notches provided so that the assembled device can be mounted on the edge of a tail gate of a pickup truck. It also allows the trailer hitch alignment device to be mounted on the edge of a partially raised rear window of a vehicle so equipped. The device can be collapsed into a compact configuration for easy storage by folding the three parts on top of each other. The above described device can only be attached to a vehicle having a rear edge available for mounting but cannot be mounted on a flat surface horizontally or vertically.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,376 discloses another device providing a visual aid when connecting a towing vehicle to a trailer. This device is of a much more complicated construction in that it involves clamps to be attached to a tail gate of a pickup truck. A convex mirror is attached to carrying bars and is frictionally mounted between the spring clamps. The mirror itself is movably mounted on the bars. There is no disclosure that this device can be mounted on any other type of towing vehicle. This same patent discloses another device providing a visual aid when connecting a towing vehicle to a trailer to be towed. This device uses the same complicated structure except that instead of using spring clamps it uses magnets to attach the device to a trunk lid of a passenger vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,289 discloses a further visual aid device for connecting a towing vehicle to a trailer. This device is not to be mounted on the towing vehicle at all but is permanently attached to the tongue of the trailer to be towed itself. This is not the object of the invention.
One object of the invention is to construct a very simple but effective and versatile device that can be constructed at a low cost. Another object of the invention is to simplify the initial mounting of the visual aid device on a vehicle no matter what type of a vehicle is or what size or dimension. An elongated bar has either spaced apart suction cups or magnets located on the bar that will attach the bar and thereby the device to either a flat or a curved surface or spaced apart surfaces such as are found on a pickup truck. The convex mirror then is oriented so that the driver can see the ball which is mounted on the hitch at the rear of the vehicle. The application at hand has an object to simplify the structure of the copending application and to reduce the cost of manufacturing the same.